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‘We Care’

By Steve Cowser

The National Pork Board and the National Pork Producers Council have worked together to develop a code of ethics called “We Care” for producers to adopt and use in training employees, truck drivers, mill operators and others.

Somehow we ended up with a clipboard at the farm that states the six “Ethical Principles for U.S. Pork Producers.” This clipboard reminds me everyday of the importance of making these six principles real to myself and everyone that is involved in our operation.

I would like to share these six principles with you. I think this is an example of the dedication that modern pork producers and all of production agriculture have toward the end user, the community and the products they are producing. The principles of the We

Care program are:

1. Produce safe food

2. Protect and promote animal well-being

3. Ensure practices to protect public health

4. Safeguard national resources in all of our practices

5. Provide a work environment that is safe

6. Contribute to a better quality of life in our communities

I pledge myself to practicing these six principles in our operation and to teaching those principles to our staff. This is another example of the effort that pork producers put into self regulation. The “We Care” effort supports the Pork Quality Assurance Plus program that I talked about in my previous column.

Most pork producers accept and practice these six principles everyday. We do care about out customers, animals, the public, natural resources, employees and community.